Second Brain, Plastic Landscapes, Become a Theoretical Physicist and the Man with Camera

#4 of 10+1 Things

Rishikesh Sreehari

Jun 19, 2021

Photo by Vilde Rolfsen

Hello,

Welcome to Issue #4 of 10+1 Things.

I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend.

Here are 10+1 Things that I thought were worth sharing this week:

Carbon Footprint of a Coffee Cup

Anthropocene Magazine has published a comparison on the carbon footprint of a reusable vs disposable coffee cup. Even though the environmental impact of a reusable cup is low, the study compares other life cycle impact factors such as washing mugs with hot water and the use of soap while cleaning. With 20-100 uses, a single reusable cup can make up for the greenhouse gas emissions of a disposable cup. But it might require more than 1000 uses to match up for the ecosystem quality indicators. The article is interesting and you can read it here.

Second Brain

Second Brain is a concept coined by Tiago Forte. It is a methodology of building a knowledge system where you can collect, refine, and process ideas that you come across or generate throughout your life. It optimizes the way we store and access information by note creation using software tools. Instead of just remembering the idea or insight you read in an article, you put it in your second brain and link it to other relevant notes. This eventually leads to a web of interconnected notes and ideas you never noticed. In a nutshell, a second brain gives you information that you didn't know you needed. Even I was sceptical in the beginning but eventually realized the potential of the system. I use a software called Obsidian to manage my Second Brain. Read more about Second Brain here.

Plastic Landscapes

Plastic Bag Landscapes is a photography series by Norwegian based fine-art photographer Vilde Rolfsen. She addresses the detrimental effects of plastic waste on our ecosystems by extracting beauty from discarded plastic bags. When illuminated with studio lights, the plastic bags do not look like a piece of trash, but like an imaginary landscape. Through the project, she explores the obsession of humans with objects and their relationship with them. The cover picture of this newsletter shows one of her photographs and you can check more photos from the project on her website.

Become the best in the world at something

Tomas Pueyo uses the concept of Skill Stacking to explain how to become the best in the world at something. Trying to be the best at one thing is not exactly the smartest path to success. Mastering the right combination of skills through stacking is a proven technique to be the best in the world. To prove his point, Thomas uses the example of Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was never the best designer or engineer in the world. But Jobs had a combination of skills such as a passion for design, technology, calligraphy, leadership, strategic mindset and salesmanship. Combining these skills eventually enabled him to create a successful company like Apple, which pioneers in advanced technology and beautiful design. Read more about the concept here.

How to become a Good Theoretical Physicist

'How to become a Good Theoretical Physicist' is a website by theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate, Gerard t'Hooft. It is a collection of resources required for an amateur Theoretical Physicist to become a good theoretical physicist in a logical order of study. If you're an amateur and wish to be a theoretical physicist this is one website you should follow religiously. All it costs is the price of the internet, pens and papers.

Decentralized Web

Decentralized web(DWeb) is an abstract concept that proposes redesigning and reorganising the internet from the key services offered by tech giants like Google, Amazon, etc. DWeb promises better user control and privacy, more competition and less dominance by large giants. It uses Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technology so that the architecture is decentralized such that it becomes hard for any entity to monitor, spy or take down any website or service. According to Jake Orlowitz, Head of the Wikipedia Library, "A Decentralized Web belongs to all of us: Its power lies in our connections to each other. Its architecture encodes our values; its usage affirms our freedom to collaborate, share, and create". Read more about DWeb here.

The First Website

Since we are talking about DWeb, have a look at the first website created by Tim Berners Lee while working at CERN on August 6, 1991. The site was about the World Wide Web project he was working on, describing the Web and how to use it. He wanted the web to be free and open so that it could evolve and expand, thus rejecting the proposal of cashing in his invention.

Man with a Movie Camera

Man with a Movie Camera is an experimental silent documentary film by Soviet director Dziga Vertov. There are no actors in the film and it portrays the life of Soviet citizens from dawn to dusk. At a time when Soviet films were mainly for communicating state propaganda, inspired by Constructivism, Vetov experimented with various unconventional techniques of that time such as multiple exposures, slow motion, close-ups etc. Though largely dismissed when it was released, the film is often hailed as the best documentary film of all time.

The Evolution of Diet

The 'Evolution of Diet' is a piece by Ann Gibbons featured in National Geographic magazine and revolves around the question, 'Could Eating like our ancestors makes us healthier?'. Until the development of Agriculture, all humans got their food by hunting, gathering, and fishing. Over the years, nomadic hunter-gatherers disappeared and humans started to settle around agricultural expansions. With the rising popularity of the Paleo Diet(Caveman or Stone-age diet), the article focuses on whether such a diet is healthier and sustainable to feed 2 billion human beings.

Letter to Your Future

Future Me is a free service that lets users send a letter to themselves in the future. Writing to your future is a powerful exercise and helps you to imagine dreams, make predictions, set goals or resolutions. The service lets you write a letter to yourself on any future date and it will be delivered to your email address. You can read some examples of letters by some users who chose to make their letters public here.

How Apple Makes the Watch

In this article published in 2015, industrial designer Greg Koenig walks us through the complex manufacturing processes involved in the production of the Apple Watch. It gives us an insight into the marvellous engineering and craftsmanship of the company. Apple uses patented innovative processes to make use of a soft metal like gold for the Apple watch. If you're fascinated by the craftsmanship of Apple products, this article is a must-read.

10+1 THINGS

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